What does it take to become B Corp certified?

Speaking on a recent episode of the ifa podcast, Glen Hare, co-founder and financial adviser at Fox & Hare, explained the process behind getting a B Corp certification.

“B Corp is a certification that ensures that the business that’s certified is not only economically sound and sustainable, but every decision that’s made, we’re taking into account our society, our community, and our planet,” he said.

Throughout what Mr Hare referred to as a “very intensive certification process”, businesses are examined to ensure they are operating ethically at all levels.

“It took us about one and a half years to go through the full certification piece and it covers all different aspects,” he said.

“So, governance, workers, customers, the community, as well as the environment. Internally, we’re having conversations around our internal policy, our parental leave policy, our primary and secondary carer policy, our policy around enabling our team to take paid voluntary days off to support charities that are important to them.”

Mr Hare added that this extends to the diversity of the members that his business services.

“Are we only working with a certain subset of our community? Are we creating a space where those that are marginalised or those that don’t think that advice is necessarily right for them? Are we engaging with them or are we turning our backs on them?” he said.

“It does also come to naturally the companies that we invest in and support, not only from an investment perspective through our members’ lens and through their portfolios, but also the companies that we support.”

Advisers looking to start the certification process should complete the short online course on the B Lab website, Mr Hare said, to gain insight into what the experience would look like.

“It is essentially completing a B impact assessment, which is a series of questions dependent on the size of your business and the nature of your business,” he said.

He added that how advisers respond to specific questions then determines flow-on questions, with businesses needing to accumulate over 80 points in order to be certified.

“The biggest piece of work for us was proof,” Mr Hare said.

“You need to evidence absolutely every single thing that you say you do. If you say you provide a really great onboarding experience for your new hires, prove it. What does the induction process look like? What does the training process look like? How are they supported from a professional development standpoint?”

He said that Fox & Hare decided to prioritise the certification two years ago, completing the process just six months ago.

“We now sit alongside brands such as Patagonia, alongside brands such as Australian Ethical, alongside brands such as Who Gives a Crap, and now alongside brands such as Rip Curl, where you can take your wetsuit back to the store and they’ll recycle it,” Mr Hare said.

“We’re now sitting alongside brands that are focused on not only being economically sustainable, so these aren’t not-for-profits, these are profitable businesses, but ensuring that we’re not being profitable to the detriment of the community and our planet.

“That’s something that we are incredibly proud of and would love more advice firms to embrace this certification, in that the advice industry and the financial services industry isn’t always painted with the best brush.”

To hear more from Mr Hare, tune in here.